Unit 12 Assignment 1

Aardman Animations
Introduction
For this report I will be covering Aardman Animations regarding what they do, who they are, how
their company organises and plans things, how well the company is structured, the different
departments within Aardman Animations and what they do and I will look into other reports
covered by the media about Aardmans company.
About the Founders
Peter Lord, born the November 4th of 1953, and David Sproxton, born January 6th 1954, are the
founders of the Aardman Animations studio.
Peter Lord is a British animator, film producer and director born in Bristol, England. He graduated
English from the University of York in 1976 and realised his dream of making and taking an
animated movie with David Sproxton who was a friend of his youth. They both founded Aardman as
a low-budget backyard studio, producing shorts and trailers for publicity.
David Sproxton was also born in Bristol, England. He graduated from
Collinwood College, University of Durham before he began his animating
career in which hed produce segments for the Vision On TV program.
Both David Sproxton and Peter Lord created the character of Morph for
Take Hart, which featured Tony Hart who was the artist from Vision On.
The History of Aardman Animations
Aardman Animations was founded in 1972 by Peter Lord and David Sproxton as a low-budget
project, they wanted to realise their dream of producing and animated motion picture. The two
provided animated sequences for the BBC series for deaf children Vision On. After they created a
segment called Greeblies in 1975 using clay animation, this became the inspiration behind creating
Morph, a simple clay character.
Peter Lord and David Sproxton began their animating partnership at school. In 1972 they registered
the name Aardman Animations. In 1976, after they graduated they moved to Bristol where they
produced their first professional production Morph for the childrens programme Take Hart where
they created animations for deaf children.
All the time Peter and David were interested in developing an adult audience for model animation.
Conversation Pieces commissioned by Channel Four
Television in 1982 enabled the pair to develop its
innovative technique of animating puppet characters to
real-life conversations. Aardman demonstrated that real
people could be characterised with insight, humour and
sensitivity with films like Early Bird, which was set in a
local radio station.
Commercials and Films
Aardman Animations are hugely successful and are a well-known company around the world. Their
work is easily recognisable for its aesthetically distinctive style and model animation technique along

with a recognisably British humour. They have strenuously avoided the smooth, perfect and
showy style which is characterised in Disney and Dreamworks animations. Aardman Animations
have developed many series as well as films, these series may lack Aardmans style. For example,
creating flushed away Aardman collaborated with Dreamworks. In flushed away they used plasticine
as well as incorporating CG effects to create the stop-motion effect and also to make the
movements as smooth as possible.
When creating animations for other companies, for example, when creating adverts or campaigns
Aardman needs to take into consideration what the client
wants first and foremost otherwise Aardman could end up
creating something completely different to what the client
had envisioned.
Some examples can be found on the Aardman website. Like
the Surf advert for laundry detergent would have had to
advertise the product, what it does and why people should
buy it and it should also fit with the customers wants.
Financial Aspects of Aardman
Aardman Animations boosted pre-tax profits by more than 60% to 3.3m in 2014, largely due to a
boom at its TV commercial-making division. Aardman Animations, which recently branched out into
the US with the acquisition of animation firm Nathan Love, also reported a healthy 26% surge in
turnover to 23.5m.
The 40-year-old Bristol-based firm acknowledged the
performance of its commercials division which achieved its
highest level of turnover since 2010. Aardman Animations has
made many campaigns in both the US and UK for clients
including Npower and the governments Change4Life antiobesity drive. The companys directors, co-founders Peter
Lord and David Sproxton, each received a dividend payment
of 94,956. Revenue from other activities such as making
commercials and licensing grow 26% to 23.5m. Over 80% of
the companys turnover comes from the UK, up on 2013, with
North America generating just 10% of the work.

Work Ethic
Aardman is a dynamic and creative company, and the founders continue to play an
active role in the business. Aardman are involved in all sorts of projects, from
creating award-winning animation feature films to educational games and apps for a
variety of renowned brands. No matter where someone works within the company,
theyll be part of a talented team of people who are passionate about what they do.
Because Aardman is still quite small, employees get opportunities to work across
different parts of the business when those opportunities arise, and theyre always
keen to grow peoples talent and expertise.
Job Roles

Animators
Aardman wants strong clay animators with proven high level experience.
They want to push the boundaries of the art form and to do this they want
people with an exceptional sense of various acting and performance styles.
They want to see a show reel showing scenes that have been animated by
the person applying for the job and they want a basic portfolio showing
character designs and storyboards.
Assistant Animators
Aardman productions demand artists who demonstrate animation, model
making and sculpting skills to serve as assistants on their feature film
projects. They want to see a show reel showing scenes that have been
animated by the person applying for the job and they want a basic portfolio
showing character designs and storyboards. And a knowledge of
photography is also useful.
Storyboard Artists
An Aardman storyboard artist should be able to effectively communicate
emotions and feeling through staging, character design, posing and
enthusiastic storytelling. The person applying for the job would be asked
to submit a portfolio with samples of previous storyboards, character
design and model sheets as well as personal sketches, which would
show their ability to convey a story. Strong traditional skills such as life
drawing, sculpture, painting and photography are also desirable.
Layout Artists
In Aardmans opinion, successful layout artists are those who can see the forest
and the trees. They want someone with a cinematographers eye and a basic
understanding of film-making are extremely helpful for this position. The
person applying for the job would be asked to submit a portfolio including
drawings which demonstrate an ability for perspective, composition, lighting
and staging. They may also include comic book or comic strip samples. Strong
traditional skills in such areas as life drawing, sculpture, painting and photography are preferred.
CGI Animators
CGI Animators utilise 2D and 3D digital tools to bring
characters and scenes to life. Artistic sensibility in the areas of
modelling, lighting and animation is preferred along with
experience on high-end 3D animation tools. Traditional
animation experience including overlap and follow through,
squash and stretch staging and composition and primary and
secondary action is a definite plus.